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Friday, January 1, 2010

It's the first day of 2010, 6 full years has past since I started on this path.

Let's re-count the major events, milestones and achievements in my cheerleading for 2009:

1. NTU HO Cheerleading - Led NTU Hall 4 for HO Cheerleading as coach, my 6th year with them since 2004. It was also to be my final year with them, and I will miss you guys who had been on this road together with me at 1 point or another.

2. Cheerobics 2009 - First cheerobics that I did not take part in a single event since my first cheerobics in 2004. Well you can say that I still did play a small part in last year's cheerobics by helping RnA Bulldogs with their training and even got to still step on the mats even though not competing as a spotter. Was very pleased that ACES won the title again for the 4th consecutive time.

3. Taiwan trip cum training with Taiwan cheerleaders - Went to Taiwan with Snow and KC. It was a very fun trip and also very tiring. Out of 10 days, we probably train at least 4 to 5 times with either Monsters or VU. Achieved a couple of new stunts over there and also made new frends.

4. Workshop with Kentucky - Got a chance to see the elites in life, doing amazing stunts which we only get to see on videos before. With Monsters and VU also in Singapore, I am very fortunate to learn from them all at 1 time.

5. ICU Judges Course - Invited to participate in ICU judges course. I have been to coaches courses for a few times, but this is the first time taking part in a judging course. We learnt the fundamentals of judging and did video judging. I am now a certified ICU Level 2 judge. After being through cheerleading as a player, a coach and now being a certified judge, all I can say is: be it players, coaches, judges, or administrators, not 1 is more important than the other, all have their roles to play in helping cheerleading progress.

6. IFC Cheerleading World Championship - It was quite a struggle at the beginning to go to the Worlds. We tried to get players to form a team to take part in the team event, but because of important issues such as funding, schedule, logistics, it did not come to materialize in the end. But we still did manage to form a 5 man team to take part in the group category. We trained hard and had the belief, allowing us to clinch 2nd runner up; coming in only after Taiwan and Thailand, who are both considered our mentors in cheerleading.

7. Personal skills achievements - I had always talked about the 4 basic skills: Full up, Full Around, Tick Tock and Pop Over. I had achieved all 4 in 2008. 2009 was used mainly to refine them and train on the consistency. After getting more comfortable with these 4 basics, I started to look into rewind. During the period I went Taiwan and when Kentucky came down, I tried doing rewind. It will take a longer time than I first thought would, but I will not give up. Still 2009 was not a bad year in terms of achieving new skills though I did not get to achieve Rewind. Couple of first were achieved again.

Some skills achieved 2009:-Pop Over from Right to Left with Snow-Tick Tock Low Tick Tock with Snow-Low Pop Over with a Monster flyer-Full up Cupie with Dian Dian from VU-Full Around Cupie with Snow-Toss left Cupie with Snow

To sum it up, 2009 had been still a relatively packed cheer year for me, even after taking away the daily rigours and trainings of pervious years when I am still an active player in a team. After taking a foot off the pedal from competing, I found myself with more time to be involved in helping cheerleaders everywhere. I still return to ACES in 2009 to help them in whatever they may need help in, such as spotting or teaching the juniors. I also get to be involved with very passionate cheerleaders from Wildcards; thanks for naming me as your guest instructor. Was also invited down to workshops or clinics for teams such as SMU Flares and RP Rexaz. In 2009 I also got to go down a couple of times to teams such as NP Magnum Force, SP Gusto, KR Steppers. Not forgetting to mentioned moving around NTU halls abit after stepping down from coaching hall 4. It had always been my pleasure to be able to pass on what cheer had given me in the past. Thanks everyone of you who had given me this opportunity.